START: Student Technology Assessment, Resources,
and Training
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana
What is it?
A selective liberal arts college of 2,400 students, DePauw University has invested heavily in technology, most notably through
a $20 million Grant of Distinction from the Lilly Endowment. In
2000, DePauw launched a series of e-learning initiatives to
ensure that infrastructure investments are coupled with programmatic support for transformative teaching and learning practices.
The university’s 361˚ Initiatives program is intended to prepare
students to be technologically fluent in a changing world where
information technology will permeate their professional and personal lives. At the core of DePauw’s 361˚ Initiatives lies the Student Technology Assessment, Resources, and Training (START)
Program, a technology assistance program—for students and
staffed by students—that is meant to serve as a replicable model
for other liberal arts colleges and universities nationwide.
Since its inception, START has been providing students with
training opportunities in general computing concepts, information literacy, presentations, spreadsheets, database management, Web authoring, digital audio, digital video, and other
applications. During the 2004–2005 academic year, more than
700 students participated in 49 workshop events, and START
consultants staffing service points distributed throughout campus worked with more than 350 student clients, advising them
on everything from image and text scanning to the production of
PowerPoint presentations. The START Program’s current suite
of services includes:
●
Online assessment tools: Using Tek.Xam, a suite of tests
delivered online to assess and certify technology literacy,
students are able to measure their technology fluency in
seven skill areas: general computing concepts, knowledge
and use of the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets,
presentations, databases, and Web authorship.
●
Online computer training: Students are provided with a
Web-based learning platform (ElementK), which they may
use free-of-charge to access more than 400 instructorfacilitated online courses, self-paced tutorials, and a comprehensive reference library. The online Learning Advisor
helps students select online courses, provides feedback
on target areas that need improvement, and helps students measure their progress in those areas.
●
Hands-on workshops and in-class instruction: Students can choose from among the program’s menu of
scheduled training workshops.
●
One-on-one consulting: Students can improve their
multimedia fluency by obtaining assistance from the START
consultants, who staff service points at DePauw’s technol-
ogy service areas in the student union, main library, and
science building.
●
Course-specific training: Instructors can call on START
staff members to help students complete course-specific
assignments involving technology. For example, an economics professor may decide to partner with START to
help students develop Excel graphs for statistical modeling.
●
Skills certification: Students can certify their technological literacy by taking a nationally recognized technology
exam (Tek.Xam).
●
Career development: Students are given the opportunity to foster their leadership and management skills by
becoming consultants and student directors of the program, assisting their peers with class assignments and
personal projects requiring technical expertise.
What problem does it solve?
Many institutions share DePauw’s goal of ensuring that students acquire the technical skills necessary to succeed after
graduation. Larger colleges and universities often concentrate
on Web-delivered distance education, but DePauw remains
solidly committed to the face-to-face teaching and learning philosophy of the traditional, small liberal arts college. What makes
DePauw’s approach unique is the way the university has stayed
true to its mission and core strengths while integrating digital
fluency throughout the liberal arts curriculum. Rather than narrowing the reach of its IT training initiatives to computer science
majors or other selected groups, DePauw’s START Program is
dedicated to comprehensive service that helps the entire student community understand the relevance of technology to
every discipline.
The START Program frequently inspires students to seek more
advanced IT training and professional opportunities through
another initiative at DePauw, the Information Technology Associates Program (ITAP), which also supplies the START Program
with some of its trainers and program leaders. ITAP is DePauw’s
internship program for students seeking advanced IT training,
close mentoring in the area of their choice, and real-world lead-
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START
ership experience. Students who apply for this nonacademic
program are offered IT internships, both on-campus in academic and administrative offices and off-campus with Indiana’s
leading technology companies, which make more than 100 student internships available to the program each year. By matching ITAP students with alumni advisors and coordinating this IT
apprenticeship program, DePauw is helping the state of Indiana
hold on to its most creative and technologically sophisticated
college graduates.
plates into which her students could place their visual and written content for a Web page assignment. The START Program
assessment report reached the conclusion that faculty who are
concerned about the academic quality of digital assignments
might want to increase their engagement in the kinds of collaborations with START that DePauw offers.
Why is it noteworthy?
●
Digital fluency: DePauw’s START Program transforms
the traditional liberal arts college curriculum by integrating
the goal of digital fluency into every discipline, classroom,
and aspect of life on this residential campus.
●
Replicable: In an effort to help other institutions incorporate the START Program’s effective student support
practices, DePauw funds internships and sabbaticals for
faculty members and information technology staff from
other campuses and hosts national workshops, conferences, and symposia on transforming teaching and learning through instructional technology.
●
Sustainable: START staff are primarily work-study students participating in the ITAP internship initiative. Therefore, personnel costs for the program are largely covered
by federal allocations.
How did they do it?
Departmental collaborations. DePauw has a long tradition
of supporting teaching and learning through programs that help
students gain proficiency in three focus areas: writing, speaking, and quantitative thinking. Students can seek assistance
from any of three help centers, each of which is dedicated to
one of these focus areas. Rather than introduce technological
proficiency as a fourth focus area with its own distinct help center, the university chose to underscore the pervasive role that
digital media fluency increasingly plays in writing, speaking, and
quantitative thinking across the liberal arts curriculum. Critical
to the success of this student support program is the willingness of campus units, particularly the three main media centers
(Music Instructional Technology Center, Digital Media Lab, and
Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media), to collaborate with
START personnel in providing students with the resources and
training they need to become technologically proficient.
Student staffing. The START Program hires work-study students to staff service points at the union, library, science building,
and media labs. The majority of the scheduled and customized
course-specific training workshops, however, are led by a smaller
number of students drawn from ITAP. First-year ITAP students
rotate throughout campus to expose them to the widest possible range of IT projects. After this apprenticeship year, ITAP
Associates can accept year-long job offers from on-campus
employers, and ITAP third- and fourth-year students undergo a
complete job search, application, and interview process before
they can be hired by the START Program or any other nonacademic, academic, or administrative office on campus. In the
START Program, ITAP Associates are given greater responsibility
for managing laboratory spaces and project work and play a critical role in ensuring that the program is sustained over the long
term. Of the 153 students currently participating in the four-year
ITAP, 11 are employed by START, including 3 students in the third
and fourth years of ITAP who serve as START Student Directors,
working closely with the coordinator on program planning.
Assessment. Evaluation processes were put in place to measure the effects that digital technology was having on teaching
and learning. The number of students who participate in the
START Program each year continues to climb, as do the satisfaction levels among students and faculty. The goal of digital
fluency for all DePauw students, however, is far more challenging to achieve. While the student interns in START and ITAP
gain considerable digital fluency themselves and provide useful
technical help to others, the vast majority of students are rarely
called upon to use digital tools to complete academic assignments. But examples are emerging, such as the professor who
commissioned START interns to develop a set of simple tem-
To learn more
Visit the START Web site at
http://www.depauw.edu/it/START/.
To share your innovation
If your institution has a practice that you believe would be of interest to the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, please share it with us.
To submit your innovation for review, please use the ELI Innovations Contribution Form on our Community Exchange page
<http://www.educause.edu/ELICommunityExchange/6797>.
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About the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) is a community of higher
education institutions and organizations committed to advancing learning through IT innovation. To achieve this mission, ELI
focuses on learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies. We believe that using IT to improve learning
requires a solid understanding of learners and how they learn. It
also requires effective practices enabled by learning technologies. We encourage institutions to use this report to broaden
awareness and improve effective teaching and learning practice.
www.educause.edu/eli
December 2005